Nicole formed as a tropical storm south of Bermuda on October 4 becoming the longest lived Atlantic October named storm since 1906. It meandered in the same general area for several days with varying wind speeds that confounded forecast models.

Nicole then rapidly strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane late October 12 with maximum sustained winds increasing to 130 mph. It made its closest pass to Bermuda as a Category 3 hurricane on October 13, with the western eyewall passing over the island.

Prior to Nicole's direct hit on Bermuda, its large eye, approximately 50 miles wide, was much larger than Bermuda itself. Hurricanes of this intensity passing near Bermuda are very rare: only 12 Category 3 hurricanes have tracked within 75 miles of Bermuda since 1899.

Update: After impacting Bermuda, Nicole moved across the north Atlantic Ocean for several days. It was finally declared post-tropical by the U.S. National Hurricane Center early on October 18.

Despite the high winds and intense precipitation, Bermuda did not suffer significant damage, in part due to the island’s stringent building codes and preparation for the storm.

QuoVadis supported clients in testing their disaster recovery and business continuity provisions before the arrival of Hurricane Nicole, and provided on-site support for the secure hosting datacentre throughout the storm with zero downtime.

QuoVadis is the managed services company of WISeKey (WIHN listed on SIX Swiss Exchange). QuoVadis Trust/Link provides managed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) including Digital Certificates for authentication, encryption, and digital signature; TLS/SSL Certificates for websites; and high-volume requirements such as IoT. QuoVadis sealsign provides software and cloud solutions for Electronic Signatures and time-stamping. QuoVadis is an EU and Swiss (ZertES) Qualified Trust Service Provider (TSP).